The University has updated its privacy and
cookie policy.
We use cookies to provide the best experience possible including delivering personalised content
on this website, other websites and social media. By continuing to use the site you agree to this or your can
manage your settings.

Our MA Arts and Project Management course helps you explore how arts organisations, cultural spaces, and visual and performing arts projects are managed in different social and economic environments.

You will be introduced to arts policies in different regional and national and circumstances while gaining advanced organisational, planning and marketing skills. This prepares you for life as a professional project manager, a PhD researcher or to work in other career sequels.

This stimulating course offers you a specialist education in Arts and Project Management. You will be encouraged to develop your knowledge and understanding in order to be effective in managing and marketing the arts within contemporary culture.

What's covered in the course?

This stimulating course offers you a specialist education in Arts and Project Management. You will be encouraged to develop your knowledge and understanding in order to be effective in managing and promoting the arts within contemporary culture.

There is scope to work on live projects with external clients such as Selfridges and you will benefit from our close links with Ikon, Eastside Projects, New Art Gallery Walsall, Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, and the lively alternative arts scene including: The Lombard Method, Grand Union, Trove, Stryx and MSFAC.

Our academic staff team is highly experienced. Programme leader, Beth Derbyshire has 20 years’ experience working in the creative industries as an inter-disciplinary artist and Creative Director in Design and Brand Development.

The staff team has national and international research profiles including the artist/curator, Mona Casey who has extensive experience in the creative industries and Kathryn Burns who supports entrepreneurs and small arts businesses.

You will be located at Birmingham School of Art (Margaret Street), a fine example of Venetian Gothic architecture and an impressive purpose built Grade I listed art school.

Studying on the Arts and Project Management course has given me a combination of professional skills with industry knowledge and I now feel that I would be an asset to an arts organisation. I have met a number of professionals who have been visiting lecturers, and their insight into the sector has inspired me further.Alice Leeman

Why Choose Us?

Birmingham School of Art is an internationally recognised centre of excellence for art-based learning and research. You will become a valued member of one of Birmingham School of Art’s Research Centres.

MA Arts and Project Management has a growing international reputation with alumni worldwide, with strong professional profiles and working in a range of organisations.

Professional exposure has led to employment with companies: Burberry, Cadbury, Channel 4, Fused, Games Faction, Saatchi & Saatchi, TBWA and The Mill.

You will have the opportunity to interact with students from other Master’s courses in the School and the wider faculty/university.

You will be supported by a highly professional staff team in a caring and supportive environment.

We maintain excellent connections with major city centre institutions such as Birmingham Museums and Art Gallery (BMAG), Selfridges, Birmingham City Council and the Lunar Society, to name but a few, and are members of the Colmore Row Business District.

Financial support may be available via the Postgraduate Loan initiative, Birmingham City University Scholarships, the Gertrude Aston Bowater Bequest and Mike Holland Trust.

Year on year our programme has achieved high rankings and favourable responses in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES). Overall full time student satisfaction in the Postgraduate Taught Experience Survey (PTES) 2015- 16 for Art-based Masters programmes was 82%.

The school achieved high scores in areas such as staff enthusiasm and support, enhancement of academic abilities, research skills development, student experience and quality of delivery.

We also achieved high levels of achievement and success in other areas such as 42% of our students graduating with Commendation and 47% of our students graduating with Distinction. The survey results also reflected high levels of employment and employability as a result of studying the course.

Entry Requirements

Essential Requirements

Essential

BA (Hons) Degree in Fine Art or Art and Design, or other Arts-based Degree course or related subject. The minimum academic qualification required is a 2:2 award. Those with equivalent prior professional or life experience will also be considered.

International Students

UK or EU students

Award

Start

Mode

Duration

Fees

MA

Sep 2019

FT

1 year

£7,100 per year

MA

Sep 2019

PT

2 years

£3,550 per year

International Students

Award

Start

Mode

Duration

Fees

MA

Sep 2019

FT

1 year

£12,300 per year

If you're unable to use the online form for any reason, you can complete our PDF application form and equal opportunities PDF form instead. The University reserves the right to increase fees in line with inflation based on the Retail Prices Index or to reflect changes in Government funding policies or changes agreed by Parliament up to a maximum of five per cent.

Personal statement

Students are required to submit a personal statement as part of their application for this course.

Your postgraduate personal statement is going to shine a light on your personal experience, academic success, personal skills and any other factors that will support your application for further study.

Here are the key areas you’ll need to address:

Your passion and motivations

Studying a postgraduate course usually means you want to specialise in something. So what’s driving you?

Why this course?

Show that you’ve researched the course offering. What is it about this particular course that appeals to you? Is it the lecturers? The modules? Etc.

What makes you a good postgraduate candidate?

Tutors want to know that you can handle postgraduate study, so show them how your undergraduate experiences or work life has equipped you for a more advanced level of study. Key areas to address are research and group work but this can vary depending on your chosen course.

Relevant academic or work experience

Add anything relevant that relates back to your chosen course and shows how your skills will contribute towards your learning. What extra-curricular activities have you taken part in? What awards have you won? What employment or voluntary experience do you have that has helped you develop transferable skills? How do these specifically relate to the course you are applying for?

You should also mention your future plans and how a postgraduate qualification fits in. Try to look beyond your postgraduate study – do you plan to jump straight into a specific career or follow your studies with a research degree? Lastly, use plain, professional English and, where possible, utilise the language of your chosen industry.

Additional costs

Our courses include activities such as performance, exhibitions, field trips and production of works or artefacts which may require you to purchase specific equipment, instruments, books, materials, hire of venues and accommodation, or other items.

The link below gives you an estimate of the possible costs associated with key activities on your course. Please bear in mind that these are only estimates of costs based on past student experience and feedback. The actual costs could vary considerably (either greater or lower than these estimates) depending on your choices as you progress through the course.

All our students are provided with 100 free pages of printing each year to a maximum total value of £15.

The additional costs listed here are to be used for indicative purposes only and are based on the additional costs for the 2018/19 academic year. The additional costs for 2019/20 will be published as soon as possible.

Additional costs

The additional costs listed at the bottom of the page are to be used for indicative purposes only and are based on the additional costs for the 2018/19 academic year. The additional costs for 2019/20 will be published as soon as possible.

Financial Support

We offer further information on possible postgraduate financial support. This includes the type of loans, grants and scholarships available both from the government and from Birmingham City University.

Did you know that you will soon be able to apply for a postgraduate loan of up to £10,906 for some courses and options?

Modules

In order to complete this course you must successfully complete all the following CORE modules (totalling 160 credits):

Strategic Marketing for the Arts

40 credits

This module will introduce you to the central role of Marketing within an arts arena the importance of understanding and reaching audiences. The module will introduce you to: Strategic approaches in marketing for the arts considering these topics: understanding of the importance of the different unusual contexts to arts organisations, how to identify new markets and market awareness, contemporary brand awareness, marketing strategies, segmentation and market research. You will gain knowledge of marketing communication skills and marketing communication channels.

This module will enable you to develop planning skills and inform you about the practical processes of arts event and project planning. From identifying the initial project idea to the project evaluation this module is designed to equip you with the tools to enable you to successfully run a project in an arts context. This module will also enable you to examine concepts and topics in event and project management such as: identifying the cultural context of an event, selecting venues, audience development, developing strategic partnerships, integrating multiple sub-events, stakeholder management, event promotion, planning tools and techniques, managing ongoing project processes and evaluating events and projects. You will learn how to write a detailed event plan.

The purpose of the module is to enable you to undertake a sustained, in-depth and theoretically informed research project exploring an area that is of personal interest to you. It is important that we can support you appropriately, so you will be guided towards choosing a research topic which is relevant to your discipline and in which your lecturers have expertise. The outcome may take the form of a written dissertation or a practical outcome with accompanying reflective, critical and contextual material. The main consideration when choosing your topic is that it must be relevant to your programme and you should consider the relevance of this topic to your future academic or professional development.

In order to complete this course you must successfully complete at least 20 credits from the following indicative list of OPTIONAL modules.

Contemporary Philosophy and Aesthetics

20 credits

This module, Contemporary Philosophy & Aesthetics explores how Fine Art is made and understood conceptually. How thinking in Fine Art works. This may inform research into practice via the meeting of philosophy, visual culture and social contexts within Fine Art practices. We may look at exhibitions artists and cultural discourses. For example: texts, films, music, fashion and events. It sets the stage for developing your own critical knowledge of the complexities underlying modern and contemporary life and in so doing, building your concepts and language, in your own practices.

The purpose of this module is to introduce you to contemporary curatorial thinking. Throughout the module, you will encounter a range of concepts, themes, approaches and methodologies relevant to your discipline including the role of the curator and exhibition making; the museum and gallery as context and framework; the role of the artist-curator-artist, curating for new media and technologies and curating global exhibitions. You will be supported to develop skills in confidently articulating your knowledge in verbal and written forms.

This module attends to both historical and contemporary models of practice in relationship to the emergence of queer theory. We will explore a range of art practices and queer methods that critique or subvert dominant modes of representation and operation. Focus is given to the following areas: Introduction to queer theory, Art beyond representation, Queer Speech, Queer horror, Education and transgression, Queering the Archive; Care; Queer reading.

This module provides you with an insight into entrepreneurship and small business start-up within the arts and related sectors. Its focus is an exploration of the practicalities of starting-up a creative business. It also covers the nature of the creative industries as a whole as well as the significance of entrepreneurship within the arts and society as a whole.

The acts of photographing and researching are intrinsically linked. They are both activities concerned with expansion and contraction. If we imagine a photograph as a means to isolate a sphere of reality (with all of the caveats this statement demands) that are rendered, most often, in fractions of seconds. Then we could think in a similar way about research. An effort to know more and more about less and less.

This module will explore publishing as a dynamic contemporary art form, a vehicle for the dissemination of ideas and an exploration of radical formats for bringing your art to a wider public. You will be introduced to artist-made books, self-publishing, digital publishing and other non-gallery modes of sharing and communicating art.

The module will be based on a specific workshop process (e.g. for example in the print room this might be etching, screen-print or lithography etc.), technical method (e.g. for example this might be around casting techniques, film and video making, 3D modelling etc.) or material (e.g. for example this might be an investigation into the material properties of clay, stone, a textiles material, etc.). You will independently identify and investigate your chosen line of enquiry to enable you to engage in practical hands on experience of a fabrication/production process.

The module examines art as a social practice, its relationship with our present time and links to historical works and contexts. You will be introduced to key examples and debates within Social Practice with focus given to the following areas: Activism, Antagonism, Participation, Collaboration, Community, Environmentalism, Relational Aesthetics, Socially Engaged Practice, Dialogical Art & Institutional Critique.

This module provides a grounding in arts and transcultural communication, using artistic practices and discursive frameworks to highlight and examine issues related to communication. Communication, but also translation and interpretation intended from a linguistic, visual, cultural, artistic and curatorial perspective, are crucial when working internationally (and locally) with different communities. This module is for those students who aim at working and researching in a transcultural global environment more critically and effectively.

Please note list of optional modules is indicative only. Students’ choice will not be guaranteed for optional modules but a fair and transparent process will be adopted and shared with students.

Course structure

As an MA Arts and Project Management student you will be supported by both the staff team and also have access to visiting professionals working in the creative industries.

Learning strategies include:

Independent learning

One to one tutorial support

Group tutorials

Taught staff led seminars

Student led seminars

School of Art Public Talks Series

Lectures and conferences

Library research/resources

Field trips (where appropriate)

Full-time students have access to the School daily. Part-time students are expected to be on-site one day per week normally Tuesdays and Wednesdays and on evenings across the week depending on which taught modules they choose. Part-time students have open access to the facilities some use them one day per week, others across the week. Attendance is flexible.

Classroom activities and projects

The programme begins with an evening induction event culminating in a meet and greet with drinks and nibbles. You will join our Pecha Kucha sessions where you will be invited to present your work. This is a fun and light-hearted way of introducing you to each other.

You will be involved in group tutorials and student-led seminars that invite you to present your research for the group to consider and critically evaluate. The intention here is to share your ideas with other people who become ‘critical friends’ to help you think through your work in new ways. This is part of the developmental and evaluative stage in term 2 two for full-time students and terms three and four for part-time students.

The course benefits from established working relationships with national organisations with students often being able to work on live projects or in placements alongside the taught content in the modules. Recent students were able to work on live projects such as the Longbridge Light Festival and students in the school as a whole worked on a project showcasing the School of Art and regional talent at Selfridges.

Through our placements we create strong links across education, industry and retail which enable and benefit students through exciting opportunities to flourish and share their research and work with our external communities at a national level alongside cultural leaders.

Students on the MA Arts and Project Management course will learn through practice based learning. Lectures will involve an engaging mix of theory, debate and group exercises that wherever possible are connected to live projects.

The course benefits from the sharing of knowledge from real life experience, a diversity of case studies and students working on live projects, integrated working within local and national networks, gaining practical tools and insider knowledge from industry experts.

Further Study

Many students progress from undergraduate to postgraduate study. For some it is an opportunity to build on what they have achieved so far, for others it is about consolidating what has yet come to fruition. For all it is about identifying new directions within a research context.

MA Arts and Project Management graduates have been highly successful as professionals working in the creative industries. Furthermore, if you decide to progress to higher degree research you will be eligible to apply for the prestigious M3C AHRC doctoral training award (£14.6million research fund) that enables strong research to emerge in the Midlands.

Trips and visits

You will have the chance to take part in one of the trips run annually by Birmingham School of Art. Recent visits have included: Berlin, Florence, Liverpool, London, New York and Venice.

You'll also be encouraged to operate independently and visit regional and national cultural centres such as Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery, Ikon, Eastside Projects, the New Art Gallery Walsall, Nottingham Contemporary, Tate Modern, ICA, Tate Liverpool and independent and alternative spaces in Birmingham and beyond.

Enhancing employability skills

As you study this course you will develop a set of transferrable skills such as creative problem solving, communication and presentation skills, adaptability and flexibility, independence and teamwork, and good time management.

Specific modules have been designed to address employability, for example; Managing Arts Events and Projects, Technical Methods, Workshop Practice and Learning, Small Arts Business Set Up, and Creative Publishing and Public Dissemination.

Our graduates

Graduate employment is high. In the 2014-2015 DLHE survey 100% of full time and 87% of part time students who joined the Art-based Masters programme graduates were in employment with graduates from 2013-2015 earning between £20,000 and £35,000 per annum. A high number of 2014-2015 graduates reported that the programme prepared them well or very well for employment.

Placements

Placements are one of the possible ways of fulfilling your Research in Practicemodule and numerous students across the ABM Programme have chosen this route. There is scope for placements with a number of organisations in the city and beyond, however it is your responsibility to plan and organise your placement with the organisation you wish to work with.

Placements can last for a few weeks or for a longer period of time. They provide you with a great opportunity to gain insight into how an organisation works and your reflection on their activities can be useful to them as you develop your research. You will also find that this is a great way to meet and network with people in the creative industries. Our members of staff are able to guide and support you through this process.

Graduate stories – Alex's story

Alex Laight graduated from this MA with a Commendation.

I chose the MA Arts and Project Management because I wanted more opportunities to gain employment within the arts and the School of Art has established links with arts venues and projects. I have worked as an intern and gained work experience at The New Art Gallery Walsall. The course is flexible and the experience has been invaluable.

The School works with Savills, Capsticks, Associated Architects and Deutsche Bank who sponsors of an annual award (£10,000) to support artists’ career development. Numerous graduates have achieved excellent profiles as professional artists in the sector.

OpportUNIty

OpportUNIty: Student Jobs on Campus ensures that our students are given a first opportunity to fill many part-time temporary positions within the University. This allows you to work while you study with us, fitting the job around your course commitments. By taking part in the scheme, you will gain valuable experiences and employability skills, enhancing your prospects in the job market.

It will also allow you to become more involved in University life by delivering, leading and supporting many aspects of the learning experience, from administration to research and mentoring roles.

Our OpportUNIty students

OpportUNIty gives you the opportunity to fill one of many part-time temporary positions within the University. This allows you to work while you study with us, fitting the job around your course commitments.

Graduate jobs

A significant number of our graduates have become highly successful arts professionals. Numerous others have been employed in a number of other professions including:

Conference/ exhibition organiser

Web designer

Marketer

Project Manager

Fund Raiser

Health professional

Graphic designer

Business professional

Insurance underwriter

Industrial relations officer

A significant number of our graduates have been appointed in Higher Education Institutions nationally and internationally.

£6,000extra per year is what someone with a Master's or PhD earns over someone with just a degree.Graduate Labour Market Statistics 2016, Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

Graduate stories – Rebekah Bainbridge

The course is really relevant to almost any career in the arts and it's really good to be in a mixed group with people from different backgrounds like jewellery and radio, alongside music and visual arts. One of the best things about the course is that you can choose our options from the whole Arts Based Masters programme so I got to do curatorial practice and arts education modules as well as my core project management ones. The local arts scene is really good and the University has a great reputation and connections so it was easy to find opportunities to get involved and get hands on experience with the things I have learnt through the course.

Birmingham City University is a vibrant and multicultural university in the heart of a modern and diverse city. We welcome many international students every year – there are currently students from more than 80 countries among our student community.

The University is conveniently placed, with Birmingham International Airport nearby and first-rate transport connections to London and the rest of the UK.

Our international pages contain a wealth of information for international students who are considering applying to study here, including:

Our international students

This course is ideal for students coming from Asia, from countries such as China, Africa, Korea and Taiwan, as many new arts organisations and networks grow in these regions. The course will equip you to become cultural pioneers as well-informed and dynamic arts professionals.

Birmingham City University International College (BCUIC)

International students who have a serious interest in studying with us but who perhaps cannot meet the direct entry requirements, academic or English, or who have been out of education for some time, can enter Birmingham City University International College (BCUIC) and begin their degree studies.

BCUIC is part of the global Navitas Group, an internationally recognised education provider, and the partnership allows students to access the University’s facilities and services and move seamlessly through to achieving a Bachelor’s degree from Birmingham City University.

Popular home countries

Our Facilities

We are constantly investing in our estate and are currently in the process of spending £260 million on new learning facilities.

Birmingham School of Art (an impressive purpose built Grade 1 listed example of Venetian Gothic architecture) was the first major renovation project undertaken by the university (£5.5m refurbishment). The School provides an incredible resource for the production of art and its associated fields of study. The building has a range of facilities available including studios, workshops, specialist art and design library, bookable spaces and lecture/seminar rooms.

Meet our staff

The staff team is highly experienced and includes professionals working across a host of external platforms and in a range of situations. The team also includes artists, philosophers and theoreticians, historians and educators with extensive expertise within their individual fields of research (see the CFAR website).

As an MA Arts and Project Management student you will encounter a diverse range of staff members depending on which choices you make. You will be able to request tutorial support from other academic and technical members of staff and our PhD students if it is important to your study.

Beth Derbyshire (Course Director) works in innovative ways in the public realm delivering a wide range of public art projects internationally working with people from deaf communities, military planners, refugees and veteran groups. Beth’s projects encompass multiple partnerships seeking to cross industry sectors to bring together many voices. The staff team also includes Kathryn Burns (Researcher and Project Director at Interiors and Lifestyles Futures); Mona Casey (international curator) and Dr Sian Vaughan (Archivist in Public Arts).

Beth Derbyshire

Course Director

Beth is a practising artist who has been working largely in the public realm for over 22 years. Her practice explores the diverse nature of human presence and expression within social and historical registers. Themes have been: silence in society, conflict and collective memory, nationality and identity. Recent works have investigated cultural, social and political relationships to nature through a synthesis of voice, music, words and image. These multi-disciplinary projects use the metaphors of landscape, the sea and song to explore ideas around territory, nationality, identity and language borrowing from sources such as national anthems, myths, scientific terms and place names.

Beth’s experience of working across a wide range of contexts and on national and international platforms helps create an environment that teaches students how arts organisations, cultural spaces, visual and performing arts projects are managed in different social, political and economic environments. The course atmosphere is supportive and rich in a diversity of cultural pursuit, research and entrepreneurship.

Mona Casey

Senior Lecturer

Mona Casey is Senior Lecturer in BA and MA Fine Art, and coordinator of third year Fine Art as well as module leader for the MA programme Models and Methods of Curatorial Practice.

She was born in Ireland and currently lives in the UK, where she works as curator, artist and researcher. She directs and has initiated a range of projects including; ARTICLE, which collaborates with curators to explore artist-led curatorial models in exhibition making, co-developed ‘The Museum of [] Objects’ an alternative, temporal model for a Museum collection, which arose out of a framework, developed at mac Birmingham, and was co-founder and curator of COLONY an artist-led exhibition space based in Birmingham, which operated for a four-year period and represented artists at ZOO Art Fair at the Royal Academy. Between 2006 – 2011 she was co-director/ steering group member of The Event, a bi-annual presentation of artist-led galleries and projects. She also collaborated as artist duo, Casey & McAree, who were represented by The Agency Gallery in London. Currently she is collaborating on a project titled – Silent Stage, based in Lithuania which investigates the site of the exhibition as a staged environment.

Kathryn Burns

For over 12 years, Kathryn has led a number of publicly funded projects which primarily aim to help small and medium sized enterprises to improve innovation and economic performance through the strategic use of design, product development and marketing. This has involved working with over 300 companies and using various project models to develop mechanisms for design knowledge transfer, exchange and capture.

Key to the success of this work has been the development of services that are relevant to company needs as well as building the confidence and capacity for change. These have included:

websites of design information

individual reports tailored to company needs and covering topics such as marketing strategy and planning; competitor analysis; the use of trends for product development; as well as design audit and process

workshops to help companies realise strengths and weaknesses and build networks for growth

creation and support of collaborative groups of companies providing mutual support to realise economic benefits

Prior to joining the University, Kathryn spent 15 years in industry, primarily in manufacturing companies ranging from SMEs to multinationals, and encompassing roles in software engineering; project management; product management and marketing. She was also a part-time tutor for the MA Information Management programme at Sheffield University.

Kathryn has a BSc and MPhil in Chemical Engineering from the University of Leeds and a Master in Business Administration from the University of Bradford.

Dr Sian Vaughan

Research Degrees Co-ordinator - Art and Design

Dr Sian Vaughan (nee Everitt) is currently a Senior Lecturer in the School of Art, Research Degrees Co-ordinator for Art and Design, and the Keeper of Archives for the Faculty’s Art and Design Archives.

Dr Martyn Brown

Dr Martyn Brown has a background in engineering but also spent four years as a professional musician. He has worked in engineering consultancy and events management in the voluntary sector and has carried out marketing consultancy on the West Bank. He holds an MBA from Aston University and a PhD examining the rise in interest in spirituality in the workplace.